California Ammo Bill Would Hurt Gun Owners

In California, an anti-ammunition piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 962, passed the state Assembly last week and moved to the state Senate for consideration. Introduced by Assemblyman Kevin DeLeon (D-45th Dist.), the bill would, according to The Sun:

“Stop the sale of more than 50 rounds of handgun ammunition per month to individuals… license and tax anyone selling handgun ammunition commercially and force these stores to get background checks on anyone selling that ammunition….require ammunition sellers to get a thumbprint from anyone buying handgun ammunition, and mandate store owners to keep these records for five years… ban all ammunition sales that don’t take place face-to-face, effectively banning all mail-order sales.”

If the bill became law, the paperwork burden placed upon these businesses, and the associated costs, would be huge. No doubt, some retail establishments would leave the ammunition-selling business altogether.

Which may be the real point of that bill? That was what Sun writer Jim Matthews believed.

De Leon’s bill, Matthew’s argued, “is about a legislator who doesn’t have the courage to introduce legislation to ban handguns. That’s what he wants, but he realizes that even in his liberal Los Angeles district that stand would get him kicked out of office in the next election. This is his way to get at gun owners and sellers by making their lives more difficult and expensive.”